Christopher Moore almost seems like he could be the bastard offspring of Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas Adams. He's got a tongue-in-cheek quirkiness that has made me laugh out loud more than once while reading his novels, and yet, he's been able to turn it around only pages later and have me nearly in tears. He has a knack for creating these strange, likable characters that I get fixated on. This novel is particular, the main character is descibed as a "Beta Male," and Moore goes into great detail describing what that means - it's funny, but also endearing, because the more he describes this man, the more recognizable he is as almost every male in my life. Most of his novels involve the supernatural in some form, but much like Adams, it's dealt with in such a mundane way that it doesn't really matter when the unbelieveable happens.

If you're at all interested, I suggest reading Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, arguably his best.

Currently listening to an audiobook I got of Choke by Palahniuk. Oh man that guy is amazing. I like that there's actually an author that's writing now that seems to me like the kind of person that can really speak to the state of things as they are now in the same way that we say Hemingway spoke to his time. I just like that there are modern books that seem to be meaningful and insightful and respected even though they're not books that have been around long enough to be torn apart and turned into a standard academic break-down of elements. Well, back to listening!

yeahduff wrote:Someone recommended him to me, but then I learned he's responsible for Fight Club, and I kinda got turned off. Maybe I'll give him a chance one day.

The book is better than the movie; in my opinion, at least. I really like Palahniuk. It's like reading Flannery O'Conner - you know going into it that you're going to have a hard time liking any of the characters. Oh, you'll identify, alright, but you won't like them.

In fact, I was in Barnes & Noble last night when I realized to my great dismay that there's only one Palahniuk novel that I've yet to read (Diary). I hate when that happens...

yeahduff wrote:Tomorrow I begin some Kafka short stories.

Though I'd read the book several times before, I found that the graphic novel for Metamorphosis actually made me cry a little.

You're not supposed to like the characters in Fight Club? Granted it's nothing but a book about culture jamming and it wasn't revelatory to me the way it was to other people, but I did enjoy the characters.

Kafka is awesome. I need to dig the stuff I own of his out as soon as I have some time to read.

The book and movie are very similar. There are only minor differences. Marla's grade school line is different, the car scene, the hole in his cheek, and the ending. Other then that there's not much difference.

I can't imagine, even if the store is the same, that the movie could really capture a Palahuik novel. I've really only read... well, heard.... one so far, but his writing style holds so much for me that it just seems like you'd have to loose a lot in translating it to the screen. *shrug* Sadly I won't have time to check out more of his stuff until I get through my stack of "to be read" books, and that won't be for years yet.

I like Kafka in moderation. But it's not the depressing that gets me. I mean, I can't get enough Beckett, and he depresses me a helluva lot more than Kafka. The thing that gets me is Kafka's fun little skewed reality tends to get boring to me... it's just there all the time in every story, and I start to expect it, and that somehow turns what would otherwise be stange and exciting into something mundane. *shrug* Maybe I'm just wierd like that. Oh man, why did Duff have to start a thread about books, now my inner nerd is going to be totally exposed. Heh.

That's why. And it seemed like a better idea than a roleplaying game thread.

I actually liked the main characters of Fight Club (everyone else were fucking gerbils), but they seemed wasted on a nothing story. But maybe the film amped up the action picture kinda elements at the expense of the real essence of the book. One day I'll give em a try.

Fifth or Seventh for you, no doubt, Afterlife. Though if you were in the Fifth, I'd have trouble deciding if you'd be thrashing at the top of the river or sunk to the bottom.

That Metamorphosis graphic novel looks really cool. Kafka's details lend themselves very well to such a visual translation.

yeahduff wrote:That's why. And it seemed like a better idea than a roleplaying game thread.

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How would that even be possible? That would be like real life. I understand it in fantasy comics, but this is just about twenty-somethings who like music. That would be a little too odd.

The real essence of the book is about having the courage to change and find yourself, and in the process everything spirals out of control, Pandora's Box and Nietzsche's Abyss. The entire thing is over the top, but there is a lot going on in the story.

I never actually read Ayn Rand, but I've heard many, many things, none of which were good. If the film "The Fountain Head" is any indiciation, I'm not terribly interested. We had to watch that in senior seminar, and damn is all I can say.

I read "Anthem" by Ayn Rand maybe 10 years ago, and at the time, really loved it. It was very similar to George Orwell's "1984," which is still a favorite of mine. So upon finishing "Anthem," I went out and bought a paperback copy of "Atlas Shrugged." And a decade later, there it sits...